The Quest for The List of The Gifted/Special Edition: The Quest Series, #1

By Lyndell Lee Brown

Living among us, 12 teenagers from all around the world, who destiny is to inherit godlike powers and incredible weapons—forged long before humankind.

A list unlike any other has just been stolen.  This list stood hidden for thousands of years.  So, scared this list is, if it ever fell into the wrong hands—the world will meet such a dark evil—not even the brightest of lights can shine hope.

Faith Spencer was expected to have an ordinary life—not an extraordinary one.  She was prepared to graduate from a simple, American public school—not a world-renowned private school.  After all, before Faith’s birth, her father took drastic measures, making sure her name wasn’t foretold on the list.  However, darkness would intervene 17 years later, by way of sacrificing two teens’ lives—resulting in Faith’s name magically appearing on the list.  Her father foolishly forgotten a golden rule—destiny can only be delayed—it can’t ever be stopped!

Faith soon meets other students who are on the list, but unfortunately they all don’t get along with one another.  Nevertheless, the teens must now learn to work together despite their differences—if they want to prevent an evildoer from using the scared list to steal their future powers and lives.

(Special Edition includes sketches)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brown Press
• Release date: Apr 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781519971166

Lyndell Lee Brown

Lyndell Lee Brown’s love for creative writing has transformed into his first novel. As a native Washingtonian, the author’s birthplace stars as a colorful backdrop to a kaleidoscope of subject matters that are explored in What If Things Were Different. Currently Mr. Brown is working on a series of short stories that explore a single topic from three different angles. The stories will be an introduction to a second novel, which is a suspense thriller and is slated to be released in 2014 as a Kindle single.

Book preview

THE QUEST (4B).jpg

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Brown BrownPress.jpg Press

Special Edition/First published: April 2016

This S.E. includes sketches of famous landmarks.

Copyright © 2016 by Lyndell Lee Brown

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

For Mom, there is not a day that I don’t miss you.  You always told me how gifted I am.

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Intro/ London’s Tower Bridge

Chapter 1 - Dark Sacrifices

Intro/ Griffith Observatory

Chapter 2 - The Keeper

Intro/ Flatiron Building

Chapter 3 – The Grant

Intro/ Golden Gate Bridge

Chapter 4 – I See You

Intro/ Statue of Liberty

Chapter 5 – New Girl

Intro/ Transamerica Pyramid

Chapter 6 – Lunch and Learn

Intro/ Montreal’s Olympic Stadium

Chapter 7 – The Games People Play

Intro/ Great Wall of China

Chapter 8 – Seeing Red

Intro/ Los Angeles City Hall

Chapter 9 – Detention

Intro/ Lincoln Memorial

Chapter 10 – The Book of Gifts

Intro/ Eiffel Tower

Chapter 11 – Maggie and Willie

Intro/ Gateway Arch

Chapter 12 – The Joining of Tables

Intro/ Christ the Redeemer Statue

Chapter 13 – Seek and Ye Shall Find

Intro/ Sydney Opera House

Chapter 14 – The Hounds from Hell

Intro/ Empire State Building

Chapter 15 – Legends and Myths

Intro/ Taj Mahal

Chapter 16 – A Dark Apprentice

Intro/ Washington Monument

Chapter 17 – The End is Only the Beginning

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

(Chapter 1) Tower Bridge - April 1892.png

London’s Tower Bridge during construction, April 12, 1892

River Thames, England

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In Washington, DC, the winter break at the world-renowned All-Saints School neared its end.  In the dead of night, two students approached the side entrance of the school.  The 16-year-olds, a boy and a girl had no cause whatsoever for being there, especially at that time of night.  Sadly, unbeknown to them, they were there to die.  Their innocent lives will soon end, but not through ordinary means or hands.  Instead, the pair shall meet their premature death through the darkest of sacrifices. 

The boy, Alfred Grandchamp IV, was from a blue blood, wealthy British family.  The girl, Lily Adams was from a blue-collar family, living in Northern Virginia.  It is true; the two classmates were cordial with one another, however, they were hardly the best of friends and surely, there was nothing romantic between them.  Alfred simply wasn’t her type nor she, his.  Lily liked boys who were short, slightly bulky, a bit pale and a little geeky, just like herself.  Alfred liked girls that were tall, model slim, somewhat tan and very athletic, a sort of mirror image of himself.  However, after tonight, the truth about Alfred and Lily’s attraction for one another would be replaced with a retelling of what was never real.  A false love story will surface like the gospel truth because no one who really knew them could ever fathom why Alfred and Lily would choose to die in each other’s arms.

During the winter break there is at least one guard patrolling the grounds of All-Saints school.  A winter storm dumping nearly three inches of snow an hour, delayed the guard arrival.  Alfred and Lily walked through the side door, left ajar purposefully.  Oddly enough, both teens were wearing their school uniform.  Their uniforms seemed rather ordinary to outsiders with its gray, red and white color theme.  Nevertheless, for those who attended the upper crust private schools, the spring and fall uniforms were made from the finest cotton and the winter uniforms that the two were sporting, made of exceptional cashmere.

As Alfred and Lily walked down the wide hallways, they had no idea where their bodies were leading them.  All they knew, neither of them had no control over their march towards their unforeseen doom.  Unable to stop their feet from advancing, the two desperately tried clinging to the century old stone columns.  Fingernails now ripped down to their cuticles, skin scraped, sanded down and bled from the fight, then the failure to hang onto the pillars.  They hoped the hope of the condemned, wishing greatly to prevent their impending demise.  Alfred and Lily tried yet again to halt the strange hold that had taken over them by grabbing lockers along the walls.  Their abrupt and desperate actions made what started as a painless stroll through the halls of the school into an agonizing drag.  Suddenly both teens began to move in a most unnatural motion.  Steady spines and joints were shifting in uncharacteristic directions and performing movements that were disturbing and visually grotesque.  They knew right then for sure, something unseen had taken possession of their bodies.  Intense fear immediately grew and clutched to Alfred and Lily’s rapidly beating hearts; hearts they now feared would soon beat no more.

The students were forcefully being led down a long dimly lit hallway towards a dead-end wall.  There was nothing there but the school’s insignia engraved on the wall.  A 12-point star with letters that spelled out All-Saints directly underneath, etched in the sand colored stone wall.  However, that precise location was significant, and Alfred and Lily’s innocent blood would soon show.  When they reached the wall, both felt something pulling them down to opposite sides of the All-Saints’ crest where the two fearfully rested.  Their backs now flush against the wall, feet stretched out along the cold floor.  There were equally long and low-lit hallways to their right and left.  Hallways as comfortless and gloomy as the one right before their ever-frightened eyes.  However, it was the bleak, murky hallway straight-ahead that a strange figure slowly emerged wearing a black hooded cloak.  A mysterious element like an unmoving shadow blackened any visible features such as a feminine hand or a masculine jaw line.

The halls were eerily silent, despite the winter snowstorm raging outside.  The mute sound plugged the surrounding air like passing death.  This made both teens wonder why a single step from the soles of the advancing figure feet couldn’t be heard.  Another attempt came about, to hear something — anything, but this time around, all they could take in was their own rapid heartbeats.  The cloaked figure seemed to float, for there was no discernible plunge, upswing or bounce that a walking person would make.  It stopped in front of them, no more than eight feet away.  Its face and all visible characteristics as impossible to see now as they once were many yards before.

Who are you?  Why are you doing this to us?  Lily demanded an answer.  Are you the one who brought us here?  What have we done to you that you feel you can do this to us?

My father is very influential.  Alfred barked.  Let me tell you now, whatever you’re planning on doing to us; you won’t bloody hell get away with it.

The cloaked figure said nothing.  No gesture passed its lips, not even a flicker of a limb.  The figure simply stood there, standing as if it was an old statue in a cemetery.

I’m bloody talking to you, howled Alfred.  Whoever or whatever you are, my father is rich and well-connected.

Lily vigorously screamed, What the hell are you?  The figure’s refusal to answer any questions frightened her more and more.  Through her intense fear, she asked.  Is it you who is controlling our bodies.  How are you able to do it?

Still nothing said, although this second round of questioning did produce a gesture; a most cruel response.  The figure left arm rose steady and slowly from its side.  When its arm rested evenly in the air, there was a sudden movement within the sleeve of the cloak.  It looked as though a glowing red fingertip twirled once within the dark shadow of the sleeve.  As soon as the twirling stopped, Alfred and Lily felt an incredible pain.  The pain directed at them was uncaring and unseen, but most assuredly felt.  It seemed like the two were smashed by a mighty wave, crashing the pair against backbreaking rocks.  The wind knocked out of them for a moment.  The two thought, before hoping, they were already dead because if that was a mere taste of what was to come, they simply couldn’t stomach anymore.  Unfortunately, death would elude the pair just a bit longer, but surely, death was waiting just around the corner.  Their captor did not intend to kill them, not yet.  The two needed to be alive for the first part of the sacrifice, but sadly; very much dead for the second part.

Alfred and Lily went from questioning the figure to begging and pleading.  Their hope was to give this person, or thing, an opportunity to think first about the outcome of its actions and leave having wronged, no one.

Please stop this, Lily beseeched voice cracked in fear.  I’m only a teenager; my whole life is ahead of me.  Please don’t rob me of the chance to grow up, falling in love and having a family of my own.

I don’t want to die either, Alfred argued just as strenuously.  I have parents and a brother who love me.  Please don’t kill me.  I promise we will not say anything.  I can’t even remember how we got here and we will forget everything that happened afterward, I swear.

Again silence—and again the figure’s left arm rose.  Terror stricken and remembering the agonizing pain the rising arm once brought, Alfred and Lily braced for impact.  This time a blow wasn’t delivered.  What happened instead was an uncontrollable urge by Alfred to lift his right arm high above his head with the back of his hand flush against the wall.  Lily’s left arm duplicated her classmate.  The cloaked figure’s hand ripped across the air from left to right in a slicing motion.  However, air wasn’t the only thing that was cut through.  As if by magic, the wrists of the teenagers were slit along the same line.  Their screams filled the silent hallways.  The gushing blood from their wrists didn’t run down Alfred and Lily’s arms.  Instead, on orders of the cloaked figure, their blood mixed together before running up the wall towards the 12-point star.  The figure lifted its head towards the school’s insignia.  It began speaking eerie and unintelligible words in an imposing and frightful tone.  Somehow, in the deserted hallways its voice was like a dark and sinister whisper. 

With unrecognizable fear in their eyes, Alfred and Lily watched as their fleeing blood climbed the stone wall to the 12-point star.  The teens’ precious blood began to fill each nook and cranny of the school’s crest.  Once filled, the 12-point star began to turn counter-clockwise to form a 6-point star.  If there was still even the slightest doubt that they were going to die, all doubt had left Alfred and Lily now, faster than their abandoning blood.  They used their free hand to hold each other.  Just to touch another human being who shared the same awful and cruel fate.  When their hands intertwined, a most unusual sensation overcame them.  A moment ago, the feeling of heavy anchor chains, the kind that kept mighty ships steady in choppy waters was felt, but now no longer.  They couldn’t remember a period in the unforgettable night that the two of them had control over their own bodies.  They didn’t break the hold of one another’s hand as they lowered their arms to the floor and raised themselves up from the cold, hard stone. 

Unknown to Alfred and Lily, both were significant beings who held special powers.  Special powers, which unfortunately for them at that exact moment weren’t fully examined and grew untrained within them.  The two were gifted students, however, not in a traditional educational context, but in the context of the supernatural.  Alfred and Lily were blessed with extraordinary gifts, remarkable abilities that envious people would lie, cheat, steal and kill to have.  Both teens were two years shy of fully knowing how truly special they were and all the things that a person with these gifts could do.  At the age of 18 gifted students such as the pair was plucked from the crowd and taught that they were far above all other humans.  These beings were known as the Gifted.  If this night were two years later, Alfred and Lily’s future would be much brighter than their dark present.  They would have had the knowledge and the weapons to battle this dark being instead of dying in a one-sided battle. 

Alfred and Lily felt an uncommon power surging within them, an energy that couldn’t be described but a power that gave them strength over their once possessed state.  Sadly, at last it was too little, too late.  The cloaked figure had what it wanted most from the teens and didn’t view the pair as a threat.  As enough blood was usurped from them to fill all points of the star, their lives must now be sacrificed in order to complete the dark ritual that would allow the cloaked figure to go beyond the wall before it.

We need to start moving slowly away, Alfred murmured to Lily.  Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.

In a faint voice Lily agreed, but recoiled when she added, I’m really afraid if we move we’re as good as dead.

If we do nothing, we basically lay in wait, he glanced in a telling way to the slit on each of their wrists and the ever-growing scarlet puddle of blood at both feet.  We will surely bleed to death.  I don’t know about you, but I would rather die fighting to stay alive.  We should go down the hallway closest to me; it leads towards the back door.

Lily softly agreed and this time without a single wince, she shook her head in agreement.  Alfred’s prudent words, taken to heart, for every passing moment the blood streaming from their wrists, slowed their heartbeat greatly.  The cloaked figure lowered its head and watched their slow-footed progress.  Before they could advance on surer steps, suddenly both stopped dead in their tracks as the figure left arm rose.  As before, the left sleeve of the black cloak cast only a shadow.  A brilliant red glow from what could have been the index finger appeared.  Once again, the glowing fingertip twirled.  However, this time not once as before but around it went twice and a single tangible word was thus spoken.  Alfred’s holidays abroad with his family traveling the world, granted him privy to many languages.  The word uttered by the hooded being sounded like the Greek language that he had heard spoken in Athens.  In his keen ears, the word sounded like.  Thanatos

Thanatos, the Greek word for death, had brought forth a dazzling red beam as well as painful and sure death for the teens in front of the malicious dark spell.  The teens were suddenly thrown forcefully against the wall.  Their arms and legs propelled up as the bodies blew backward.  It was as though the pair were literally struck with a wrecking ball.  Alfred and Lily’s bodies thumped loudly to the floor.  Falling upon each other without a fleeting scream, like a pile of unwanted goods.  They dropped as though someone flicked an off switch.  Once bright and lively, and then with an abrupt snap of a finger there was nothing but the black, stillness of the dark.  Soon another sound soon filled the hallways of All-Saints after the echo of the falling remains of the young sacrificed students subsided.  The wall began to rumble as if a small earthquake had been triggered.  The roar of large rough limestone blocks clashing against each other now echoed through the massive halls as the time-honored blocks gave way to form a doorway.

Behind the door lay a room that contained a sacred list, a list, which only its divine Keeper was to view.  Only the Keeper and the Seer were powerful enough that they could decipher the list.  The sacred list contained the names of every Gifted being spread out across 6 of the 7 continents, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.  Dating back nearly 3,000 years, the sacred list had never faced such danger as the cloaked dark presence that had just sacrificed two students to come face to face with it.

Beyond the dusty doorway, stone steps lay, seven deep.  The room was oval and the same rough, sand colored rectangle limestone blocks adorned the entire interior.  In the middle of the room, an open vessel not perched on a pedestal of any kind, rather suspended firmly in mid-air by an undetected bright force.  The curved walls decorated with ancient torch brackets that instantly lit once the entryway to the solemn room formed.

The cloaked figure that once moved silently through the hallways as if levitating appeared grounded.  Footsteps emerged on the dusty stairs as the figure descended the stone steps of the well-lit room.  A room that wasn’t present on any old blueprints or new maps.  Great lengths had been taken to hide the hallowed room.  Not just from those who weren’t Gifted, but from the Gifted as well.  It had long been feared, if the list fell into distrusting hands, false eyes would do anything to see what is true, in order to change all that was meant be.  The demise of Alfred and Lily had instant ramifications, for two names that were never meant to appear on the list found new life because of their death.  In a flash both teens’ full names appeared in black ink then faded away.  Two other names replaced the removed, and the new names glittered wondrously and invisibly as they moved up. 

The list was within a vessel made of solid, polished gold, it shimmered in the ray of the lights.  It was a large golden vessel, reaching nearly 7 feet from end to end and top to bottom.  The front and back resembled soaring wings, stretching out further than the smaller square pages within.  On each raised feather, the words The Ark of the Gifted was written in every language known to humankind.

The cloaked figure moved cautiously toward the hovering wings and once in reach, it ripped violently at the open page appearing before it.  The sheet from the anointed vessel was of papyrus and was thousands of years old.  The pages preceding the torn sheet had visible names written on it, unlike the page in its cold harsh grip.  The torn page appeared completely blank, void of a single word, alphabet or ink spot.  The paper was however, overflowing with names.  Many concealed names, but names that only two others could truly bear witness to.  Nevertheless, for the cloaked figure that list, which it had killed to have within its vile hand, was of little use to read. 

The paper that held the sacred list of the Gifted, tucked immediately in the dark folds of the being’s left sleeve.  The page was stripped from the vessel because the cloaked figure’s Master had commanded it to do so, because of what was about to happen next and more.  The flames from the torches that had shined so bright, so evenly in its blissful glow, now began to flicker and dim.  The enormous golden wings that stood suspended in air began to tilt right and left, back and forth in rhythm with the dancing, dying shadows of the flames along the wall.  Then suddenly, wings that has been spread eagle for thousands of years, straighten in on itself with a loud bang.  The shut wings dropped to the limestone floor, cracking the stone.  The humongous tremor that followed began a massive upheaval that rocked the stone gateway as it began to close in upon itself.  The cloaked figure that had moved so slowly throughout the night as though possessing time as it bedeviled the youngsters’ bodies, now proceeded hastily for the stairs before being entombed in the chamber.

Once back on the other side of the wall, the strangest thing happened.  The cloaked figure would gaze longingly upon the lifeless bodies of the deceased students one last time.  It stared strongly at the pair as though there was no enjoyment in slaughtering them like sacrificial lambs.  Nevertheless, Alfred and Lily’s deaths were a small part of a bigger picture that a vicious and powerful Dark Master had envisioned for the world.

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(Chapter 2) Giffan_of_planetarium_Los_Angeles_CA_1934_image_1.png

Griffith Observatory during construction, September 21, 1934

Los Angeles, CA

Vivid shades of red and blue could be seen through the softly falling snow that blanketed Washington, D.C.  In the distance, a convoy of Metropolitan police car sirens could be heard screaming in the quiet, snowy night.  Bright lights and sirens echoed along once silent snow-covered streets.  Peace and quiet in the wee hours of the night was unusual for many city dwellers.  However, not at all uncommon for the ritzy neighborhood the convoy was now traveling through.  There was surprise and greater interest from many residents awakened from their restful slumber because they had come to realize that no area of the city was immune from the intoxicating effects of crime.  The blinking lights and blaring siren, destined for All-Saints school.  An anonymous tip, sent to authorities via text.  It stated that two students lay dead on the ground floor deep inside the two-tiered stacked stone school.

The All-Saints complex was rather unique.  Not only had the school bore its prestigious name, but also directly across an open wide field, the world-renowned University sat.  One of the oldest universities in the country, All-Saints University opened its doors in the year 1818.  All-Saints’ school groundbreaking came nearly 70 years later when the land directly across the University was purchased.  The rear of the University faced the Potomac River, offering a lovely view of the river and Key Bridge.  A soaring clock tower sat at one end, on the other an observational tower with fantastic views of Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.  The University and school had two noteworthy landmarks next to them.  Adjacent to the University, a 300-year-old nondenominational church sat.  Adjacent to the school was a cemetery with stones marking the long forgotten of the early 1800’s. 

When the Metropolitan police arrived on the grounds of All-Saints, the tardy security guard met the officers as they exited their vehicles along the school.  The guard, a plump older man wearing a black winter coat that was a size too small, appeared rather alarmed.  He looked very nervous in the glare of the flashing red and blue lights.  Quickly he snuffed out a cigarette and stood at attention.  The security guard did not know why the cops were there, but he knew the sight of that many police cars was not a good sign.  It also did not look good, and certainly did not feel good to him, especially since he had arrived only minutes before they had.  The news that two students lay dead inside the school was immediately taken with a grain of salt by the guard.  So much so, that he began to laugh aloud at the seriousness of the officers.  By